It Could Have Ended So Much Different...

Yesterday as my husband was on his way to work,

he and a guy bumped into one another as often happens on the crowded streets 

of Chicago during the morning rush.  

This time was different.

This time the guy turned, lifted up his shirt and pointed to a gun.

A gun.  On a busy street, full of hundreds, in broad daylight.

While I have thanked God from my absolute core that nothing happened to him,

that he returned to us safe and sound, things could have gone so much different.

I am not sure why we are reminded of this so often in our lives.

That morning I had a sinking pit in my stomach, a feeling I couldn't shake. 

My oldest lingered in saying good-bye on his way to school.

One of those times you just think, is something about to happen?

I said some prayers for our protection.

Little did I know what had happened moments earlier.

I thank God for protecting him. 

I know he is still in disbelief.

I process things through writing, it's cathartic for me.

Things like this have to change you.

Not make you afraid.  Not make you paranoid or worried.

But if they don't make you stop to realize the sanctity of life,

how fragile it is, and how we can be so deeply impacted by the free will of others,
what was the point?

Anger is there, I would like to shove a picture in the guy's face of

our five perfect children and ask how he would have felt taking their Dad away.

What the ramifications of just threatening that are.

I know he wouldn't care.  If you're crazy enough to flash a gun at someone on a 

crowded street during broad daylight, every ounce of humanity is gone.

It's a shell of a person filled with hatred and evil roaming free.

We understand how worse things could have been.

Yet, it has to pause your life.

It has to remind you that there is no promise for the 

next minute, the next day, the next year.

While I always know this, sometimes the only way to get back to truly comprehending what it means is for something of this magnitude to happen.

Thank you God for protecting my everything.

Today I remember...

{via pinterest}

{michelle}